Sports

Sri Lanka's cricket board has apologised to ground staff who were ordered to strip off and return the uniforms it provided before being paid. The incident happened after the final match in the one-day series between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe at the Hambantota stadium on Monday. Images on social media showed some of the temporary staff walking off in their underpants. …

Kumar Sangakkara has been offered a post of Sri Lanka high commissioner by the country’s president, Maithripala Sirisena. The offer came straight after India had wrapped up victory in the second Test in Colombo, in which batsman Sangakkara was carried aloft by his team-mates in a circuit of the ground. “You have been a great honour to Sri Lanka,” said…

As he greets you with a smile at his biscuit factory, named Luckyland Biscuit Manufacturers, Sinnasamy Muthiah, with his big eyes and diminutive stature, immediately reminds you of someone you've grown up watching on TV. With one of his four sons being Test cricket's highest wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan, Sinnasamy Muthiah is a well-known man in Kandy. However,…

Female ex-employee reveals the rampant abuse by frustrated officials at Cricket's head office Sexual demands, groping, touching, lude comments and verbal abuse of helpless and silent female employees are common occurrences inside the glamourous offices of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) according to the official testimony of a former female Executive officer of the…

Sri Lankan cricket's governing body on Wednesday announced the sacking of three officials after allegations that members of the women's national team were asked to perform sexual favours to keep their places. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said all three officials were shown the door at the end of their contracts last month after an internal inquiry found two of them…

The ICC Board today considered the implications of the appointment of an Interim Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) by the Government of Sri Lanka and whether this may be a breach of the ICC’s constitution which requires free and fair elections for office-bearers within Member boards. After considerable discussion, and without making a final decision on the…

No social function on this island is as important as the recent annual Royal-Thomian cricket match, but this year’s event was particularly special because of what has become known here as the Royalist coup. It was celebrated last weekend in party tents with toasts involving many drinks, and in acts of silliness that often unfold during the match. As usual, not a…

The new government here is racing to carry out an ambitious 100-day plan to overhaul the constitution and reinvigorate the economy as it girds for elections likely within the next few months. But on Saturday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took a break from affairs of state—to watch a high-school cricket match. It isn’t just any game. Known as the Battle…

The Sports for Reconciliation cricket tournament, implemented by ZOA Sri Lanka, brings together 18 village-level youth teams from the Northern and Eastern Provinces representing all communities. The tournament will be played in a knock-out format with the grand final held at Mullaitivu in March 2015. The tournament aims to bring the excitement and spirit of the ICC…

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse will skip the Commonwealth Games starting this week in Glasgow despite being chair of the bloc, his office said Tuesday, after activists threatened to protest at his attendance. Rajapakse's spokeswoman denied he had decided to stay away because of the threat of demonstrations over Colombo's alleged human rights abuses. "No…

The measure of a cricketer is by what he does on the field. The measure of a legendary cricketer is by what he continues to do once he has left the ground. Muttiah Muralitharan is a classic example. After close to two decades in international cricket, the legendary spinner, who had been a symbol of peace during the height of the ethnic war in Sri Lanka, is now…

In the three months I have been in South Africa, most of the people I've met - the students and professors in the university I'm based at, taxi drivers, people in pubs, passengers in buses and church workers - have heard only one thing about Sri Lanka: cricket. Not about the war, tourist attractions or "Ceylon tea". Yet, with South Africa's recent tour of Sri…

A drunken Sri Lankan cricketer caused panic on a packed British Airways passenger flight when he tried to open the cabin door at 35,000ft. In his stupor he tugged away for up to two minutes at the exterior door before telling BA cabin crew on board the packed Boeing 777 that he had mistaken it for the toilet. The incident alarmed eye-witnesses among the 229…

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is to conduct a talent search for potential youngsters from the former LTTE controlled regions in the north and the east. For two days next month, the SLC would run coaching camps and conduct a talent search for under-14 to under-19 age categories in northern capital of Jaffna.Only very few Tamils have made it to the Sri Lanka national team…

The State police are investigating allegations that private detectives were hired to spy on the activities of pro-Eelam Tamil activists, including students, in an attempt to prevent them from disrupting the ongoing IPL cricket matches, sources in intelligence agencies said on Tuesday.“We have information that monitoring equipment is being used to intercept the…

Sri Lanka's nationalist parties on Thursday appealed to the country's cricketers to boycott playing in India during the Indian Premier League (IPL) as tension simmered between Colombo and Chennai.Representatives of the National Buddhist Council and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), which is part of the ruling coalition, handed over a petition to Sri Lanka's cricket…

Yet that applies outside the fence as well as inside, with the Tamil Refugee Council planning to use the occasion to protest against the Sri Lankan Government which, it claims, was guilty of war crimes against the Tamil Tigers during the bloody civil war and still is persecuting the Tamil community. The Tamil organisation maintains the Sri Lankan side is too closely…

Cricket Australia and the Australian government cannot keep avoiding this issue. They must seriously consider a ban on future fixtures against Sri Lanka. As protests and calls for a boycott continue this summer, the message to the Sri Lankan government, via its cricket team, is the same one used against apartheid South Africa 40 years ago. There can be no normal…

Guor Marial made his debut in the London Games on Sunday, a major accomplishment for the South Sudanese marathoner who ran as an independent in the Olympics. Marial, 28, pounded his way around the 26.2-mile course in 2:19:32. He finished 47th in the race dominated by fellow Africans Steven Kiprotich of Uganda, who won gold, and Abel Kirui and Wilson Kiprotich, both…

The sports minister of Sri Lanka has accused the national Olympic Committee of failing to follow his advice to send personal coaches together with the country's Olympic athletes. Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage also dismisses the accusation by the team captain Niluka Karunaratne that the authorities did not allow his coach to come to London despite requesting to…

They are songs of pride and patriotism, booming out at every international sporting fixture and medal ceremony. But behind the world's national anthems lurk some strange and surprising stories, finds Alex Marshall. Thanks to its rousing tune, France's La Marseillaise is one of the world's most recognisable anthems. After it was written in 1792, the song quickly…

In a shocking development, former Sri Lankan great Arjuna Ranatunga has alleged that the 2011 World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka was fixed. According to a report in Sri Lanka`s English newspaper Daily Mirror, Ranatunga, while reacting to former skipper Kumar Sangakkara`s comments on whose behest the 2009 tour of Pakistan was arranged, said: "Sangakkara…

An athlete from Point Pedro won the best athlete title of the John Tarbet Junior Athletic Championships for the first time at Anuradhapura on Friday. Sri Lanka Schools Athletic Association officials praised the efforts of Balachandran Ananth of Hartley College, Point Pedro: "Balachandran Ananth is the first athlete from the entire Jaffna peninsula to have secured the…

Meher Khalil earned fame and success after saving Sri Lanka’s cricket team from a deadly 2009 attack in Pakistan, but the bus driver calls the incident “tragic” and says it is best forgotten. The 43-year-old will be one of the guests of honour at Lahore’s Gaffafi Stadium on Friday, when Pakistan play Zimbabwe in their first home international since the…

Scarborough’s United Tamil Sports Club won the Minor Track Association Provincial Indoor Championships...for the fifth year in a row. The track and field team consisting of youth ages 5 to 14 met on March 21-22 at the Toronto Track and Field Centre at York University. The competition involved track and field events such as running, hurdles, shot put and more. …

The national cricket team just advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals, but last weekend, it was a high-school cricket match that brought this capital city to a standstill. The three-day faceoff between Royal College and S. Thomas College is the biggest of Sri Lanka’s big matches, akin to homecoming football games, and this year marks the 136th anniversary of its…

A Sri Lankan cricket fan waved a sign branding Australian cricketer Glen Maxwell a ‘fag’ during a Cricket World Cup match. However, Sri Lankan social media has moved to condemn a man snapped holding a sign at the game, which brands cricket star Glenn Maxwell with a homophobic slur. The sign reads “Maxwell Ponnaya” – which roughly translates as “Maxwell is…

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Tuesday decided to conduct an inquiry into the claims that the team management and national selectors of the Sri Lanka’s women’s cricket team needed to be sexually pleased by the Sri Lankan eves to get into the team and then retain their places, according to reports. The news rocked the Sri Lankan cricket and has forced SLC to launch…

Yes, yes, I know, it is a guaranteed vote winner and a potentially huge boost in talkback ratings if you can demonise asylum seekers as filthy queue jumpers who just might be terrorists. But, inspiringly, there are still many Australians who treat them the way the vast majority are – you know, like fellow humans, as if they're seriously desperate people who have…

Ian Botham's latest charity walk is to take him 160km from the north to the south of Sri Lanka and will be his toughest to date, the England great said on Thursday. The eight-day walk, arranged to raise funds for those affected by the 30-year war in Sri Lanka, begins at Killinochchi on November 1 and is due to end at Seenigama. "It's going to be like nothing I…

Another ministerial offspring is in the limelight again and this time bringing disgrace to the country in the eyes of the world because he was unable to distinguish between a cabin door and a toilet door due to being under the influence of liquor. Ramith Rambukwella, son of Media Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella has not only brought humiliation…

Sri Lanka's rugby authorities are investigating President Mahinda Rajapaksa's rugby-playing son after claims that he assaulted a referee. One report says Rohitha Rajapaksa has been suspended from the game but the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) denies this. Witnesses said they saw Mr Rajapaksa, 22, physically attack the referee after his side lost a match…

A controversial ban imposed by the Indian Premier League on Sri Lankan cricketers playing in the state of Tamil Nadu appears to outsiders a lot like cutting off your nose to spite your face. The decision wasn't to the liking of all IPL team owners, except the Chennai Super Kings, because it gave the south Indian side an undue advantage, since many Sri Lankans playing…

The news of young Dinesh Chandimal spurning offers from two IPL franchises must be heartening for Sri Lankan fans, who had been silent observers to the unsavoury controversy about players from the island nation in IPL 6. Just appointed as the Twenty20 skipper of his country, Chandimal has snubbed offers from Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors in the wake of a…

As a journalist for 43 years in the jockstrap departments of The Age and the Herald Sun, I was rarely in touch with the realities of the world beyond the dressing room and press box. About the only time in my sports writing career that I was ever spooked was at VFL Park, Waverley, when a naked Carl Ditterich, the then-balding, one-time blond bombshell of VFL…

Sachin Tendulkar has retired from ODI cricket. Tendulkar finishes an illustrious career in the 50-over format, having played 463 ODIs, scored 18,426 runs and made 49 centuries, each of them a world record. His last ODI was against Pakistan in Dhaka during the Asia Cup, where he made a half-century in India's victory.Tendulkar made his ODI debut on his first…

Sri Lanka is sending a seven-member team to compete in the Paralympic Games in London. They are determined to win the first ever Paralympic medal for the country, but say their effort is being hampered by a lack of official support. "The only equipment I have for training is my walking stick," says the team's captain PA Lal Pushpakumara, who lost his left leg after…

The London 2012 Olympics have ended with a spectacular musical closing ceremony and the official handover to the next host city, Rio de Janeiro. The three-hour show featured some of the biggest names of British pop from decades past, including the Spice Girls, George Michael and Elbow. Games chief Lord Coe said: "When our time came - Britain, we did it right."

The woman who gatecrashed India's parade at the Olympic opening ceremony apologised on Friday for her "error of judgement" and said she did not breach security at the London Games. Madhura Nagendra, identified as a Bangalore student by local media, irked Indian officials in London by her unauthorised presence alongside flag-bearing wrestler Sushil Kumar.